Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Add to Résumé: Castle Grayskull!

I've recently had a dream of an opportunity to work with Eric Treadaway of the FourHorsemen Toy Design group, to do the design work on Icon Heroes Castle Grayskull Deluxe Statue!We all got to see it for the first time, painted up in prototype glory at San Diego Comic Con, at the AFX booth!When I was approached to work on this, the direction from Icon Heroes and Mattel was to create a look that would be consistent with what's currently being done with Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics line of collectable action figures. (minus the scale of course)I knew also at that point that I was to work directly with Eric and Mattel for approvals.

It was an amazing experience to look over the various designs Castle Grayskull has had over the years in a variety of media, from the old mini comics, to the Filmation and MYP Cartoons, and of course, the old toy itself. Like anything that's been in media for 30 years, it's gone through quite an evolution! We also pulled from early concept art created by Mark Taylor for the Castle as well as the prototype sculpt that he did.

One of the most exciting things to do was design the "rarely seen" sides of Grayskull, the right side, the back, and the roof. We feel that exploring the whole environment of the Castle's exterior is ideal in a statue format such as this. There's a nod to just about every era in He-Man's history in this statue.We hope fans enjoy the design overall, a lot of love went into it. I'm as anxious as the rest of you about finding out when it will be made available and for how much!

I can't wait to display it right along side the other various MotU toys and statues that I own. I'm very grateful to Icon Heroes and Mattel for letting me have this opportunity. Special thanks of course to Eric Treadaway, working with him on this was like going over to your best friends house and playing with your favorite toys in the sandbox together. And lastly, thanks to Pixel-Dan for the great shots of the finished prototype!

Wow man, what a dream come true!! Im so happy for you and envious at the same time! LOLIt looks amazing, It really shows when people who have a TRUE love and passion work on this brand! Here's to your future involvement with this awesome brand!